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Interculturalism: A new diversity ideology with interrelated components of dialogue, unity, and identity flexibility
Author(s) -
Verkuyten Maykel,
Yogeeswaran Kumar,
Mepham Kieran,
Sprong Stefanie
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
european journal of social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.609
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1099-0992
pISSN - 0046-2772
DOI - 10.1002/ejsp.2628
Subject(s) - interculturalism , multiculturalism , ideology , diversity (politics) , sociology , cultural assimilation , harmony (color) , social psychology , identity (music) , politics , gender studies , political science , psychology , ethnic group , aesthetics , anthropology , law , philosophy , art , pedagogy , visual arts
Increased cultural diversity has led to considerable debate on how to best promote intergroup harmony within pluralistic nations. In the current research, we consider the nature of interculturalism, a new diversity ideology extensively discussed by political philosophers and policy‐makers in Europe and beyond. Interculturalism consists of three interrelated components of dialogue, unity, and identity flexibility. Using data ( N = 2,364) from three national surveys in two ethnically diverse nations (Netherlands and USA ), we test a new measure of interculturalism and establish its independence from multiculturalism and assimilation. We then demonstrate that interculturalism predicts positive intergroup outcomes, over and above multiculturalism, and is in a theoretically meaningful way related to various criterion measures. Collectively, these studies establish the uniqueness of interculturalism from multiculturalism and demonstrate its promise for improving intergroup relations in culturally diverse nations.